panthers55

I am enjoying the season and this team. I think we can make some noise if we keep.playing hard and stay focused on the prize. I am interested to see what happens when we face adversity. Is it next man up or do we fade away or come up short? I think we will fight hard and play for a whole 60 minutes. We could be a tough out this year. With some momentum and confidence who knows we might surprise some folks this year.

An odd front is about how they are attacking the offensive line through the gaps which are numbered with odd numbers or square up to the player which are numbered evenly. So odd fronts are usually one gap penetrating schemes. It has nothing to do with whether they use a 3 or 4 point stance or how many people are rushing. https://www.dawgsbynature.com/2014/3/2/5462738/mike-pettines-2013-base-defense-more-base-fronts

I am solidly on the Darnold train. He is our guy and we will ride as far as he takes us. Is he the future? Right now he is doing great. Why look too far ahead? Like the team I am just taking it as we go. I have been a Panther long enough to know that you can't predict the future easily. Sometimes we expect to be good and suck. Other times like in 2015 we expect to suck and we don't. Look ahead and worry all you want. I am going to ride this as far as it goes and enjoy the ups and downs. Hopefully more ups than downs.

It is amazing how good players look when the scheme is solid and guys get freed up for 1 on 1 action. Instead of double teaming 3 rushers like lastvyear they now have to.protect one on one and can't easily predict who they have to block.

Many of the heavy blitzing teams are in the AFC not NFC. So it is true that the Saints wouldn't have seen that much. There was a reason that we played preseason games against both the Ravens and Pittsburgh. But if you watch those teams you would see we are doing the same thing. Jim Johnson used to do it all the time using a 4-3 with Philadelphia. It isn't that unique but it is effective. It takes fast players who can get off the line and into coverage quickly backpedaling while watching their man. It seems to work better using man coverage because you are at the line with the offensive player and can focus on the player and move with him instead of defending a zone but we did it both ways.

It's about time. I remember a few years ago when the Saints got lots of early breaks with opposing players out or injured. Meanwhile we build momentum and confidence for the big tests ahead. If they don't have depth to replace missing or injured players that is too bad. I don't remember anyone feeling sorry for us when we had multiple injuries at one spot or another.

That might be tough with their O line but I would love to see it. I don't like Dallas at all.

These are not odd fronts, this is what teams like Baltimore and Pittsburgh have done for years. They put different guys on the line showing blitz and then rush from different angles or overload one side after faking the blitz from the other. This isn't unique but copying other successful blitzing teams. He is getting the most out of his guys and he is picking good times to get pressure but this defense isn't that different from many teams. It is just different from we have run before and very different from last year's prevent defense.

Why do we need to keep things in perspective? Maybe the players do but I can have unbridled enthusiasm and total excitement about kicking the saints butt and it isn't going to stop or change anything. In fact if we win on Thursday I might even get cocky.

One question. How does a fan being cocky on a Panther website spell trouble for the team. Now if players get cocky it might be an issue but fan behavior has no impact on the game other than we made some noise yesterday and helped the team during the game. I love all these cautionary comments about why not to get overconfident because it might hurt us somehow. The way to get over your PTSD is let go of the the past and embrace the present and future. I have no idea about the future but I am loving the present. And gloating if I see a Saints fan. After hearing from them for years I am ready to talk a little smack back.

I don't care about rankings only Ws. As long as the defense plays all out and we stay aggressive I don't care how we rank. Only defensive stat that matters is points surrendered.

Darnold took charge on that first series and drove us down for a score. Then the defense shut them down. Sam moved us steadily all day enough to have a huge time advantage instead of going 3 and out like the Saints did all day. Darnold doesn't need to be a superstar. He just needs to help us get 1 point than the defense gives up. So far so good. Sam did carry the offense distributing the ball to his playmaker. Qhy can't we citrate his successes given everyone is going to amplify his mistakes and errors as they happen.

Remember that in order to get over trauma you have to separate the past from the present.

To me Darnold is a battler. He is tough and keeps trying to make plays. I have been impressed. He has to be really happy at 2-0 with this defense. He has never had this kind of team to play on. He must be thanking his stars he got traded from the Jets.

Exactly. We have a game manager who keep the chains moving. Exactly what you can win games with if you don't have to score 30 points to win. The defense is always so important to the offense. I remember when Brees used to put up huge numbers and they went 7-9 until they got a defense. I hope Darnold can come back and win if we need it. I like even better when we lead from start to finish like we have so far. I am on the Darnold train. I sure hope it is a great ride.

I am really happy so far. After all the losses to the Saints over the last several years it was awesome to put a beat down on them and shut up all the who dats strutting into the game so cocky and sure. Saints fans quiet and grimacing as we all left the stadium to keep pounding chants. I am really looking forward to Thursday night and seeing how we do. I have no clue if we are contenders or pretenders but 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the division is a great fast start which is what we needed. And the defense was nasty all day. We kept the pedal down most of the day. I am becoming a Snow disciple.

I predict the cats win by 3 at home. This will be a defensive battle and turnovers will tell the tale.

I think the Panthers start off the Rhule era today where we show the division we are legitimate.

It will continue as that is our scheme now. It is a lot more west coast with short quick timing routes to guys in space with the majority of yards being after the catch. Running backs are used like receivers and a short dump off is just an extended handoff. We will take some deep shots but not like when we ran a Coryell system. Rhule seemed to be a grind it out running game guy who is likely influencing our scheme but we are going to look a lot like New Orleans moving forward.

He said before he came here that his goal was to get back into the NFL and coach at the highest level he can. He is one of the highest paid coaches in the NFL. He is where he wanted to be. Why move back into the college ranks unless he bombs out like Saban did.

The QB room gets Covid and they have no one who can play.

Agree that personnel is improved but the 3-5-3 he imported last year from college. He pretty much gave up the 3 man prevent and rushed 4 or more all day long. I hope we make the transition to more man when Abouye returns week 3. I thought that Jackson played well but there were a lot of holes in the zone yesterday. Pressure really helped.

The defense is young and against great offenses we will struggle, but not today. The gameplan was very good and the execution was inconsistent. Still I would rather err on the side of being too aggressive instead of not enough. I thought Snow blitzing at the end was great to see. Sure we play zone behind it until we get Aboye back and Horn has some game reps. I am eager to see how we match up with New Orleans. Brady the student against the master. You know Brady wants that game.

The biggest issues to me were not finishing drives and being two predictable in our playcalling.

That isn't what it looked like live. On one play where he had lots of time I saw him go through his progressions twice and then dumped it off for a short gain. There were lots of plays where it was designed to get one person loose and you expect to throw it there to that guy when he breaks open like to did with DJ and McCaffrey over the middle. Let's be honest, with a security blanket like CMC it is easy to overuse him. As Sam said in an interview after the game, Christian knows how to get open and get himself in a great spot to catch the ball. He is always open. Hard to resist.